Wire 106: S01E12 “Cleaning Up”

For this video discussion of Season 1 Episode 12 of The Wire, “Cleaning Up,” Paul Bond and I were joined by UMW internauts Maggie Stough and Imran Ahmed. This discussion was generative because I realized it might be useful to coordinate discussion details with students before we go live. I tend to fly by the seat of my pants in all things, but a bit of structure for these discussions makes sense. I’ll be working on sharing an ongoing video discussions document wherein folks can share the particular things they want to talk about for each episode. Iteration 4life!

Another thing about this discussion, and why I am learning to hate Google more and more, is that they threatened to stop the discussion midstream if we shared another clip from the show. We were sharing a couple of minute long clips from The Wire to contextualize the discussion we were having and they threatened to shut us down. Total bullshit. This is an excellent example of how out of control the media lockdown on our culture has become, and how our convenience-driven dependence on third party services reinforces that reality. I have to get our own video setup together for these wire106 discussions soon, because I am so tired of having advertising companies dictate how we interact with the media culture defines us.

Also, I keep calling this episode “The Clean-Up,” but it’s Cleaning Up.” So much for exactitude.

This entry was posted in digital storytelling and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Wire 106: S01E12 “Cleaning Up”

  1. Green Canoe says:

    I had assumed the drug dealers on the corners and in the courtyard were often wearing distinctive colors to help us track the characters in the deals being made as they run around. I remember this helping me follow the hand-to-hand buys in episode 3 “The Buys” when a runner was wearing a khaki jacket with a bright orange lining that would slide open and become visible as he ran around.

    You’d think they would wear the most non-distinctive colors possible to be able to evade capture if being pursued by the POlice. In fact, I forget where I saw that scene where someone was being given advice on cutting his hair more conventionally so he wouldn’t stick out so visibly to the POlice.

    Good video discussion!

    • Reverend says:

      Yeah, I would think the flash would be discouraged too, and Ilvoe this idea that what’s practical for costume design for the show might not be practical for the trade of drug dealing 🙂

Leave a Reply to Reverend Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.